time management 101

One thing I'm still figuring out how to streamline is my time management.
Always a hindsight evaluation when looking at pictures like these,
as what looks like a days work has taken a forgettably long time.

so-cal winter

One thing I am good at is opening up a can of worms.
That is my version of streamlining time management.
If there's a project that needs to be done,
tear it up and it will get done faster.

cadillac flathead + 1940 ford coupe

Just when you thought all I was thinking about was that danged hood,
there was a hidden elephant in the room.

loud pipes save lives

The goal here is to drive this hot rod off the lot,

and to do that there are some serious road blocks in the infrastructure.
It had been almost 2 years since pulling the engine,
and in this time a series of projects has backed up.

welded

One of the least important is the hood.
Now that the engine is out,
I can crawl inside that engine bay,
and fab up an inner structure and hinge system.
Sounds like fun huh!?
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iron horse - float on
a little pickin' cover.
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It's funny how old cars have the ability to attract gearheads from around the world.

These guys came all the way from Norway to check out the 40.

Accidentally of course as they hadn't realized it yet.

norwegian gearheads

The striped guy seemed like a snob at first when looking at the metalwork.
He asked how I was going to finish it,
and I replied that after some hammering,
I'll slap some plastic filler on and smooth it out.
He pulled out this IPAD thing and showed me his work,
decent sheetmetal work covered in lead filler,
kinda hinting that lead was somehow superior.

child labor

Well sure it could be,
but what the heck we live in southern california,
not some frozen wasteland,
where plastic filler doesn't harden in the winter.

jakob and jaxon perich - 2013

We don't put up these canopies for the rain,
they're for protection from the winter sun!
Jeez these foreigners...

holey chit

The next least important thing is the grille.

This bent up grille shell had been giving me grief for years.

Now it's a pile of pieces,

and I'm forced to do a little modification.

template

So far I've started with a symmetrical top piece,

and that's about as far as it's gotten.
Hey at least that project has started, right!?

cadillac flathead

Now time for that elephant.
Many years ago I built this bellhousing,
connecting the 40's cadillac flathead to a chevy bolt pattern transmission.

grinder

One thing I never completed was the starter mount.
For some unexplained reason all the fitting was done,
and even the fastener(bolt) positions were punched in,
but the holes were never drilled and tapped.
This one thing has stopped me from starting the engine!

mad scientist

Granted there is a big gamble here,
in that there is no adjustment in how the starter gear meshes with the flywheel.
I'm hoping that my measurements were more correct when I was building it,
then now when I'm trying to figure out how I thought building this was a good idea!

Anyway the starter whirrs like a blender,
and hopefully I'll at least get to test this out over the weekend,
if not get restarted on these other nagging projects.

TP